A common element in K-Pop is for each group to have a concept or theme that they try to embody through their music, performances, and overall image. Some common concepts include girl crush, cute, Y2K, dark, bad boy, academia, and sci-fi. My favorite girl group, BLACKPINK, adopted the girl crush concept throughout their career since it began in 2016. Their music was so commited to this theme that BLACKPINK and their producer, Teddy, were accused of using a “formula” to ensure that their music remained successful. It was so formulized that the members more or less sang in the same order everytime for the same parts of the songs, and the fans could begin to predict what their new songs would sound like. Examples of their music being repetitive down to when a member sings is “How You Like That” and “Pink Venom”. Due to this and infrequent releases, BLACKPINK’s popularity declined, but recently each member has released solo music where they get to explore different concepts. This has brough attention back to BLACKPINK, and each member has been highly praised for finally being able to express their indivudal artistic styles.
Another group that began to stray from their orignal concept, yet received some backlash instead of praise, is TWICE. This group also debuted back in 2016 but with the cute concept. At the time the member’s ages ranged from 16 – 20 years old, so they had a much easier time committing to that concept. An example of this cute concept is their song “Heartshaker”. Due to the childish nature of this concept, TWICE began to stray towards a more mature concept as they aged. Fans were steadily becoming upset that TWICE wasn’t TWICE anymore, but is it right to force K-Pop idols to continue in a concept that they don’t want to embody anymore? TWICE still releases cute music, but I believe they should be free to explore generes that better connect with them in the present. That is one of the pitfalls, in my opinion, with the ideas of concepts in K-Pop. It limits the creativity of the idols and traps them within themes that they didn’t have a lot of choice in. There has been a shift away from defined themes during newer group’s debuts, but it can’t be denied that fans still assign concepts to these groups and expect their idols to cater to them.